Two Minutes to Midnight
by krissyg927
Summary: It's New Years Eve at the diner that Daryl always goes to and Carol is there like always. This is a little one shot that got me out of bed at five am Christmas Day and wouldn't leave me alone. I hope you all like it. No ZA AU Caryl.


**_A/N: This is a big ball of New Year's fluff; I don't know what got into me. Hope you enjoy, let me know. I wish you all the Happiest and Healthiest 2016. Thank you to everyone who reads my nonsense and to my ff bff Magenta's Nightmare just for being so great and such a wonderful friend to me._**

The rain beat against the window pane as he stared out into the dark parking lot. It was well lit at least but still foreboding and foggy at 11:30 pm on New Year's Eve. He hoped she was driving carefully in this weather; he knew she had a lead foot. Daryl waited for the telltale headlights from her car because she was due any minute.

He suffered from insomnia sometimes and couldn't sleep, or maybe he was just in love, either way sleep avoided him more nights than he would have liked. With sleep eluding him, would find himself at the diner more than a few times a week.

It was fine because usually he saw Carol there too.

Carol and Maggie shared a car and right now Maggie was wiping down the tables of the diner, finishing her shift. he was sitting in waiting for her to arrive. Pretending that she was coming to see him, wishing it were true.

Carol and Maggie would go home together like always, when Tara came in at twelve to relieve Maggie.

Carol worked 3-11 in the hospital pediatric ward as a nurse, caring for and comforting the children that were away from home and scared. He imagined she was good at her job; she was a kind soul.

She always had a smile for everyone, even at this late hour when surely she must be dead on her feet. She always made sure to say hello to him and it made his heart sing every time.

Sometimes they talked while she waited for Maggie, but he was so incredibly shy, he could barely think of anything to say to her.

It always felt so fucking awkward to him and he wished that just once he could get out of his own way, but he couldn't. His father had made sure that he would always be a bumbling mess in society, never able to speak up, and always alone.

Carol was just too beautiful, she always had been, with long, cascading, beautiful, auburn hair that he was dying to touch. Beautiful skin with those adorable freckles across her nose in the summer. She was striking, but he knew it would never happen.

Her lips were heart shaped and he longed to kiss them. He never knew what longing meant before her and now he knew all too well.

His eyes followed her every time she came in the diner and he always wished he could just take it a little further and talk to her more.

But he couldn't. He would just look at her.

This was not new, he always looked at her, all through grammar school and high school, always afraid, always chickening out.

He knew he stared at her too much, but she never made him feel like it bothered her. He was sure she didn't even notice; he was just someone there while she waited for Maggie.

There were a few other customers in the 24- hour diner, but he waited for Carol, like every night, unable to say much more to her than hello.

The sight of her in her cute pink scrub uniform walking across the parking lot was like sunshine to him and she didn't even know it.

He would smile to himself watching her from the window, wishing she was coming to see him.

He could never have a girl like her.

Merle would say he was such a pussy, to not be able to talk to a woman he knew all through school. Merle didn't understand that she was so out of his league, there was a whole world separating them.

Yes, he had known Carol and even Maggie all his life, but they were from the good part of town, not the side Daryl and Merle were from. Merle was in jail now anyway so it didn't much matter what he would think.

She was a professional woman now, having been away for four years of college and recently back home to follow her dream. This town was probably just a familiar stepping stone for her and soon she would leave for the excitement of city life.

He had missed seeing her around town while she was in college and he would miss her again when she moved. But there was nothing he could do.

When she sat here talking to Maggie while waiting the hour until Maggie got off work most nights, he heard of her plans to leave.

In the New Year she would start going to the hospitals in Atlanta and applying for jobs. He had overheard that a few weeks ago.

Part of him just wanted to tell her how he felt, she was so friendly to him, always with a smile and a kind word. Then he would remember who he was and then he felt like that was how she treated everyone, he wasn't anything special at all.

He loved her and would never be able to act upon it.

He was startled out of his thoughts by Maggie, who was standing in front of him holding a coffee pot.

"Refill Daryl?" She said. "It's decaf, like you wanted."

He looked up at her through the fringe of his dirty blonde colored hair and nodded.

"No date tonight? It's New Year's eve." Maggie said as she poured his coffee, just like every other time he was in. She never asked him a personal question like that before and he was startled by it.

He just shook his head. There were just a few people left in the diner, one of them being Maggie's boyfriend Glenn, likely here to kiss her for New Year's even though she had to work. There was an elderly couple as well, eating breakfast together.

"Nah." He felt his ears turning red, like they always did when he was embarrassed. "No date."

No date ever, and there wouldn't be if he didn't stop mooning over a woman he could never have. Not that he wanted anyone else.

He wasn't interested in meeting anyone.

"Well, Happy New Year, I expect Carol should be here soon, I'll be back to check on you in a few, ok?"

He nodded, he knew Carol would be there any minute, he could see the headlights of the old Jag she drove. He knew it had been her mother's and she inherited it, along with the house and everything when her parent's died.

He worked on the car sometimes when she brought it in to Axel's garage and her mother brought it in before her.

Maggie lived with her now, because she didn't want to be alone, but the house was for sale, because she was getting out of dodge.

Then she was walking into the diner with her bright smile, that made his heart skip. She stopped and talked with Maggie and he could see Maggie nodding her head.

Then Carol turned towards him.

She waved to him and said. "Hey Daryl."

Like she always did, but this time instead of sitting at the counter to chat with Maggie she kept walking towards the booth he was sitting in.

He felt his heart speed up and he started to sweat, usually she would talk to him as he was leaving, while she sat at the counter with Maggie.

She never came to sit with him. He gulped for air like a fish out of water.

Then she was sitting across from him. "It's two minutes to midnight Daryl, are you going to kiss me tonight or what?"

His eyes grew wide and he struggled to process what she had just said, because surely she wasn't talking to him.

"I can't wait forever, you know." She said and he looked like a deer caught in the headlights. "I thought I was giving you enough hints, but I'm tired of waiting."

Was she really talking to him? He looked around, to see if anyone else was around.

"Carol." He stammered. "I.'

"Come on." She smiled that smile that lit up the room and his whole life. "Didn't you noticed Glenn here, he's giving Maggie a ride home tonight. I'm here for a New Year's kiss, so what do you say?"


End file.
